Holy as the sabbath is, I have no hesitation in saying that the Lord's day, with which the Church has to do, is founded on deeper sanctity. The believer has now to beware on the one hand of confounding the sabbath with the Lord's day, and on the other of supposing that, because the Lord's day is not the sabbath, it may therefore be turned to a selfish and worldly account. The sabbath is the holy memorial of creation and the law, as the Lord's day is of grace and new creation in the resurrection of the Saviour. As Christians, we are neither of the old creation nor under the law, but stand on the totally different ground of Christ dead and risen.
The sabbath was for man and for the Jew—the last day of the week, and one simply of rest to be shared with his ox and his ass. This is not the Christian idea which begins the week with the Lord, gives the best to Him in worship, and makes one free to labor for Him in the midst of the world's sin and misery.